#ffn and livejournal

[dont-leafmealone]

Jetko fic recs outside ao3

There's plenty of awesome fic out there if you know where to look! And as a bonus, most of these are from the early '10s/late '00s, meaning they have a pretty distinct vibe, especially the modern aus.

LiveJournal:

Perfect Information - modern AU; Zuko, arriving back to the US after an extended stay in Japan, ends up staying with his old friend Jet and his roommates, Long and Bee. As old feelings resurface, their friendship becomes complicated. unrated but falls in my opinion between M/E on the AO3 scale, 18 chapters (plus interludes), complete.

Something Else - Jet and Zuko meet after Zuko's luck takes a turn for the worse following his exile from the Earth Kingdom town. The two reluctantly bond, and Zuko learns there's more to life than chasing the Avatar. Oneshot, T

Ships In Space - Zuko gets forcibly adopted by a renegade space crew; shortly thereafter, their rare prize of a spaceship attracts the attention of a down-on-their-luck pirate crew. The captain and Zuko find themselves drawn to one another. Oneshot, PG

Tumblr:

Euphoria - Jet finds Zuko in the Fire Nation before his coronation, sharing a bittersweet reunion. Oneshot, unrated but passes for T.

Compromise - Zuko, overwhelmed with his duties as Fire Lord, has a proposal for Jet. T, around 1k, complete. (Definitely go through this author's 'my fic' tag, you won't regret)

Fanfiction.net:

Closer - Iroh bails Jet out of trouble with the Dai Li, and gets him a job at Pao's tea shop. Jet takes advantage of this to do some spying on the firebenders, and - wrongly - concludes he was mistaken. M, 3 chapters, complete.

Rock and Island - Jet's determined to get the mysterious scarred boy from the ferry on his team. Featuring nightmares, heart-to-hearts and rejection. Oneshot, K+, complete.

Stop-and-Lock - An IOU on a cup of tea at Pao's leads to a more extensive relationship with Jet than Zuko bargained for. Oneshot, M, 20k

Insomnia - Modern AU; Zuko moves to a new university, and gets a strange new roommate, new friends, and a new lease on life. He no longer has to deal with fitting into high society; just lack of sleep, class divides, and his boyfriend exploiting his ticklishness. 3 chapters, T, technically in-progress but not updated since 2008.

Long Way Home - Jet doesn't see Iroh heat the tea, and forms a fixation on Zuko instead. Zuko isn't as enthusiastic about this as Jet, but warns up to him. 2 chapters, T, incomplete (see above)

Just Trying to Get By - Post-war and living in the palace, Jet is frustrated with his seeming inability to help make a difference. Oneshot, K

As usual if you have any recs to add I'm all ears!

[sherl-grey]

super curious! and to be clear, this is about type of content (ex. rating, tropes, etc.) than about fandom—

[porcelana-r0ta]

It's hard to believe that dcxdp is so popular that DC-only fans and DP-only fans have to beg for proper tagging....

Like I was really out there in 2015, crying and begging any fic website that existed for even a scrap of dcxdp content. And now dcxdp is basically its own fandom lol

[tigirl-and-co]

absolutely wild question, but does anybody have any fic recs where like... tails or somebody finds E-102γ and repairs him to have a regular power source, and not run off of the life energy of a bird? I am having a craving...

[the-gaudiest-of-vpns]

Is there some rule in the Brotherhood AU that says no smut?

[nevaronn]

I offer a gentle forehead smooch to all who have commented/kudosed/hyped up my fics on any platform because u guys give me a reason to bull through this block I'm in <3

[quil12]

Omg i hope this is not coming off stalkish or anything but i saw you in my notifications and i was like,,,is this the person that made those fics where tatsuya and katsuya are bonding,,and yes! It was you! I love them sooo much wfghrxjud never stop doing gods work😭🥹

Oh! Don't worry, not stalkerish at all lmao. And omg yeah, when I played EP, I was just immediately drawn to and invested in their relationship - honestly the most intriguing part of the game for me lmao. They just really infested my brain. They deserve to just bond and hang out together!! I actually just started writing another one-shot today with them cause the ideas don't want to stop (it's very much pre-canon with baby Tatsuya and slightly-less-baby-but-still-baby Katsuya)

(Your art is also immaculate btw. I've been thinking about the one with Lisa and Tatsuya playing basketball since I saw it lmao. Just the expression on his face)

[epsilonnot]

i would like to study the population of fic writers who are into both bones and stargate

not because i think it’s weird, i just find it’s larger than i expected

[e-flo]

holy shit i've been on ao3 for 10 years

w h a t

[zhenyakon]

My friend handed me a printed sasugaara pwp on the bus, two pages per sheet double sided. that's how everyone should experience their first porn

Please participate in my research (also, if you say other, please put it in the tags/comments !)

[bibliophilea]

So... this isn't the first time I've seen people being incredibly mean to a whole section of the phandom. It's the first time in a while I've seen a post this bad in the main "danny phantom" tag, though. I have Thoughts™ that have been stewing for a while. Thoughts™ that shouldn't be put in the tags of someone else's post.

I'm not going to link anything. These are just my thoughts, raised to the forefront by recent posts in the main tag.

TLDR: I have two main Thoughts™:

No matter what you ship, I welcome you to this phandom. The folks who openly despise real people for shipping fictional things do not represent all of phandom. Y'all deserve better than being called shitty names. Your ships do not make you a bad person, and I personally welcome you.

To y'all who keep trying to draw a line in the sand to define who is "degenerate" or whose work is "degenerate": the moment you draw that line, you create a way for others to shove people behind that line. And the folks who usually get shoved behind that line and called "degenerate" are lgbtqia+ folks, and sa/csa survivors. It's happened before on LiveJournal and FFN, and it's happening now, irl, with book bannings across the USA (and especially in Florida). The only way to protect lgbtqia+ folks and sa/csa survivors from this abuse is to not draw a line in the sand at all. Don't call folks "degenerate" for any reason, unless you're ready to have that finger pointed back at you by a larger and more negative movement.

If you desire fuller context, it's below the cut.

First: no matter what you ship, I welcome you to this phandom.

The views of hatred and disgust that pop up in this phandom don't represent all of phandom. No fandom is perfect, and we'll always see some form of the "logic of disgust" from some folks in any fandom. But no matter what you ship, and whether or not I personally ship it, I welcome you. You will find no disgust from me as I am now.

If you dig backwards into my blog, you might find some anti sentiment. My introduction to fandom was first FFN, and then tumblr, back when I was more of a black-and-white thinker. I'm pretty sure I experienced some form of shock when I really started digging in to the Wild West that is fandom. I don't know if I ever expressed this shock online. But none of you deserve to be called "degenerates" over liking whatever fictional content you like. Y'all are a part of phandom, too, and any attempts to erase you or deride you are wrong.

We shouldn't be drawing lines in the sand and throwing people behind those lines. That's dangerous.

Second: to y'all who keep drawing lines in the sand, please consider the broader context around you.

The moment you draw a line in the sand to delineate between you and your group of people, and "them" and their group of "degenerates", people find ways to shove other folks, including you and your folks, behind that line. Historically, both in fandom and outside of fandom, the folks who get shoved ALWAYS include lgbtqia+ folks, and sa/csa survivors. We saw this with the purging of LiveJournal. We saw this with the multiple purges of FanFiction.Net. We haven't seen this with ao3, as far as I know; but their stance seems to be very anti-censorship for fandom-historical reasons.

Outside of fandom, we are seeing this now. I'm doing my senior capstone project on book bans. According to PEN America's data, over the past school year alone, 154 counties in 34 states have banned 1557 books 3362 times overall. Over 40% of those bans come from Florida counties. And much of the "reasoning" behind these bans is the same logic of disgust that fandom applies to "problematic ships": They call it pornographic and pedophilia. They call it harmful and age-inappropriate. They largely target books about lgbtqia+ people and people of color. And this year, they've also targeted "books on physical abuse, health and well-being, and themes of grief and death" - expanding their censorship to "protect the children".

Censorship doesn't protect anyone. Instead, it prevents people from holding genuine conversations with real people about the censored material.

And if you're not ready to have that conversation, that's fine! You do you! But don't create an environment where other people can't have that conversation. That only breeds the sort of black-and-white thinking that leads to 1406 book bannings in the state of Florida.

This is just speculation on my part: but I reckon every single person who supports those bans would love to ban the same content you want censored. And they'd call for you and the content you love to be lumped in with them.

We all deserve better than that. So please stop drawing lines in the sand.

[thedragonagebigbang]

Big Bang Writer Requirements

Writers commit to producing a completed, new fanfiction PRIMARILY for the Dragon Age Media of at minimum 25,000 words. This work must be completed and posted to the AO3 collection by October 31, 2025. 

Total Writing Time: July 1 - October 31

Quick Links: ▸ What is This Event? ▸ Schedule ▸ Rules ▸ Code of Conduct ▸ Content Guidelines ▸ Writer Requirements ▸ Artist Requirements ▸ Answered Questions

Event Info: Full Guidebook & Rules | Artist Guide | Writer Guide Contact The Mods: ask | discord | email: thedragonagebig@gmail.com

All writer-specific deadlines, deliverables, guidelines, and more can be found in the WRITER GUIDE. Please bookmark this for your reference. The information below is abbreviated.

TIMELINE

All Deadlines are “by end of day” (EOD) in any timezone.

July 14: Nonzero Word Count Soft Check-In Due July 31: Pitches Due August 1-September 15: Interview Scheduling OR Questionnaire Submissions Window August 8: Writer 7500 Word Cut Off Due August 14: All Teams Formed & Connected September 15: Artist & Writer Check In Due October 31: All Works Due November 1: Tumblr Promos Begin, 1 team/day

There will be a 2025 DA Big Bang Google Calendar that you can add to your own calendar - link coming soon!

WORK REQUIREMENTS

Writers & Projects Start Anonymous: do not share your ideas publicly. You are not allowed to discuss your project outside of the SECRET writer-only chat in the discord. This is to make the artist pitch claims blind and fair.

Your Final Product: Writers commit to producing a completed, new fanfiction PRIMARILY for the Dragon Age Media of at minimum 25,000 words. This work must be completed and posted to the AO3 collection by October 31, 2025. Writers who fail to reach the minimum will not be included in the Bang Collection, nor advertised by the Bang. This is out of fairness to all writers undertaking this challenge.

Longfics can be anything you like, within our sparing content guidelines! They are not constrained by prompts, DNWs, etc. There is no maximum word count, no limit to the fandom(s) (in case of crossovers), and no restriction on max rating.

Written works must be new:

They cannot be rewrites of existing fanfictions, or compilations of existing fanfictions, or reposts of existing fanfictions, that have been posted on tumblr, AO3, FFN, Livejournal, Wordpress, or other platforms.

Written works must be primarily for the Dragon Age franchise, even for crossovers:

“Geralt of Rivia with Templar Abilities, but still in The Continent, and no Dragon Age characters appear” is probably skirting the line, but “Geralt of Rivia is sent into Thedas” or “Cullen Rutherford as a Witcher in an AU version of Thedas” are probably okay.

Written works must be at least 25,000 words, and complete, when posted:

Works must be uploaded to AO3

Works must be submitted to the 2025 Big Bang collection

Works must be completed (no new chapters or significant revisions to be added)

Writers agree to meeting minimum checkpoint progress, and clearly communicating progress (or lack thereof) to the moderators of the event. These are listed in the Timeline.

DELIVERABLES AND DUE DATES

Sign Ups: June 1-June 30

On the Google Form, open from June 1-June 30, Writers must provide:

▸ contact information ▸ a non-binding 1-5 sentence explanation of their fic idea ▸ an estimated length (25k+) ▸ an estimated Rating ▸ if you wish to be added to the secret writer discord channels

Soft Check-In: July 1-July 14

On the Google Form, open from July 1-July 14, Writers must provide a current, non-zero word count. Any non-zero word count received by July 14 will qualify you to submit a Pitch.

Writer Pitches: July 15-July 31

On the Google Form, open from July 15-July 31, writers will submit their project pitches for Artists to claim. The information will then be anonymized and posted to the DABB 2025 Pitch Collection for Artists to peruse and claim. The mod team will then finalize teams.

Cut-Off Check-In: July 14-August 8

This will be a Google Form. Even if the fic was requested by an artist, we will not match artists with a fic that has not met the minimum 7,500 words by August 8, 2025.

Team Collaboration: August 14-October 31

Upon matching, Writers and Artists will be connected over email. From there, Teams can decide what platform is best for their communication. Please keep in mind our privacy recommendation.

In the event that the event has more artists sign up than writers, all fics will enter a lottery for the chance to receive a second artist match (forming a Team of Three).

Writers must send the latest draft of their writing to their Artist partner(s). It can be any length (7500 words+), and in any condition, but the artist needs something to go off of for their part of the Bang. If an Artist does not receive a draft of the fic after 72 hours, the mods will investigate. If it is found that the Writer has not met target word counts, they will be disqualified from the event and banned from future participation.

Writers should be in regular, private contact with their Artist partner(s). Writers should provide as many written excerpts as the artist (reasonably) requests.

While your partnership is not necessarily anonymous, your work should not be shared/streamed publicly until the whole fic/art combo is posted on your reveal day!

Submissions: October 19-31

Writers must add their work to the AO3 Collection for the 2025 Dragon Age Big Bang when finished, AND, via a Google Form open October 19-31, ONE REPRESENTATIVE from each time must submit material for the Tumblr promo posts. Decide your team representative ahead of time! The full version AND a square crop of the art must be submitted by ONE REPRESENTATIVE OF YOUR TEAM for the final tumblr promotional post. Please read more about image submission, hosting, formatting, and cropping, here.

Event Info: Full Guidebook & Rules | Artist Guide | Writer Guide Contact The Mods: ask | discord | email: thedragonagebigbang@gmail.com All 2024 Work Posts | 2024 Wrap Up | 2024 AO3 Collection

[elposting]

A Brief History of Elder McKinley's Fanon Name

(And all the earliest uses I could find of it)

I was inspired to do this by @killedbytelephones recent question as to why McKinley's fanon name is Connor (as I've been wondering the same thing since I first joined the fandom).

@bomhistorian commented on the post explaining it originated from a fanfiction that was popular early on in the show's run.

So, I started at AO3 and sorted by oldest under The Book of Mormon - 2011 tag. I found this fic (uploaded on November 11, 2012) on the first page, the first fic on the archive I could find using the name "Connor" for Elder McKinley. The other fics that had already been posted to AO3 at this point either did not have McKinley in them, or referred to him as "Ryan" (earliest use dated July 19, 2011) or "Sean" (earliest use dated May 19, 2012).

I was curious if anyone in the comments had commented about this being the earliest use of Connor as McKinley's first name and lo and behold! Starlightandpinot commented in 2018 asking if this was the first instance- author of the fic, deliarium, replied, saying the name had already been popularized on both fanfiction.net and tumblr.

I started on FFN, sorting by oldest under the Book of Mormon tag. The oldest fic on there, Turn It Off (July 20, 2011), used the name Ryan- this is an upload of the same fic crossposted by the author to AO3 on July 21, 2011.

Side note: another author on FFN, rainbowfish22, wrote a majority of the last page of the BOM tag on ffn- none of them gave any name to McKinley (just referring to him as Elder McKinley, however they did give Elder Poptarts the name Christopher in this fic from August 3, 2011. I want to say this is the earliest instance of Elder Poptarts being called Chris/Christopher. Furthermore, on the next page of fics, author TrapezoidalGreenOnes uses this name, Christopher, in their fic Turn it Off on August 4, 2011. Elder McKinley is still unnamed in this fic.

On August 5, 2011 author blottedpen23 upload their fic In Africa where they refer to Elder McKinley as Connor- the earliest instance on FFN of this name being used. I wasn't fully convinced this is where the name Connor originated from, however, so I moved my search to Tumblr.

Side note: On July 3, 2011 tumblr user @turnit0ff posted this fic, where Elder McKinley's name is Ryan- I believe this is the very first instance of the name Ryan being used for Elder McKinley!

On July 16, 2011 tumblr user @rhythmthlef posted this fic. This is the very first post under the #elder mckinley tag that uses the name Connor for him. However, they credit it as a sequel to user sunshinegirl22's fic, who's blog has been deleted since. So, I googled around to try to find an archive of the fic. A livejournal blog titled bomfanfic came up, which archived, you guessed it, book of mormon fanfiction. I couldn't find the specific sunshinegirl22 fic Rhythm's tumblr post was referring to, but the LJ blog had archived another one of sunshinegirl22's fics: Dear Steve, posted on July 11, 2011 (which did not name Elder McKinley in it).

I was still curious, so I continued clicking around the LJ blog and found this fic by kmagz, also archived on July 11, 2011, which used the name Connor for Elder McKinley. Kmagz did not appear to have a LJ, but at some point he had a tumblr (however it has since been deleted). I checked the wayback machine for archives of both kmagz's tumblr and sunshinegirl22's tumblr, but neither have seemed to been archived.

I have no idea when the archived fics from July 11, 2011 were actually written, but I'll assume it was likely sometime in July 2011 (from the tumblr post that sequels sunshinegirl22's fic).

Another fic was uploaded by @slinkychesterisnowanarchiv-blog1 referring to McKinley as Connor (this time spelt Conner) just two hours after @rhythmthlef's SG22 sequel fic was uploaded onto tumblr. SlinkyChester may have seen Rhythm's fic and written theirs right after (using the same name), but I think it's more likely this name already existed in Kmagz's fic archived from July 11 (which I think must have been popular on tumblr before the blog was later deleted).

Side note: Two of the other fics archived on the LJ blog on July 11 referred to McKinley as "Alexander" and "Iain". The rest of the fics archived on that day either do not include or do not name McKinley. I think this also suggests/supports Kmagz's fic was the first to use Connor. (at least the first we have proof of existing.)

Here's the first fanart I could find referring to McKinley as Connor.

In a later @rhythmthlef fic from September 14, 2011, she refers to McKinley as Iain (spelled Ian this time).

---

TL;DR I think it was a combination of fanfictions using the name Connor for McKinley that just made it catch on (and along the way people just accepted it as canon unaware it was a fan name). These fics beat out/became more popular than the ones referring to McKinley as Ryan or Sean or Alexander or Ian/Iain. As far as my knowledge goes right now, I believe kmagz came up with Connor in a now deleted fic from July 2011.

UPDATE (also in reblogs): @rhythmthlef was so kind as to add more insight and answer a question I had!! Turns out sunshinegirl22 was actually the first person to use the name Connor for Elder McKinley (I’m assuming in a fic also from July 2011, maybe June?) but everyone say thank you sunshinegirl22! 🫶🫶 maybe we’ll even find the original fic some day! :-D

[greenhorn-art]

All The King's Horses | As You Are Now, So Once Was I by @samwpmarleau (grumkinsnark)

All The King's Horses [LiveJournal ch1] [Fanfiction.net ch1]

As You Are Now, So Once Was I [LiveJournal ch1] [Fanfiction.net ch1]

Fandom: Supernatural, Criminal Minds

Rating: Teen | PG-13

Category: Gen

Words: ~36,192

All The King's Horses: Protect and Serve. Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity. To what lengths would you go to uphold those oaths? When it comes to a particularly brutal and unsolvable case, the BAU just may have to resort to some more unorthodox methods. SPN/Criminal Minds crossover.

As You Are Now, So Once Was I: Sequel to "All the King's Horses." When Dean catches J.J.'s press conference on the news about a current case and notices a few...inconsistencies, he realizes the BAU is definitely going to need his help. Again. ON HIATUS

About the Book

FORMAT: Letter quarto, flatback bradel binding, french link stitch, no tapes

FONTS: EB Garamond [via Google Fonts], Supernatural Knight [via DaFont], D-Din [via Font Squirrel], Daniel [via DaFont], Permanent Marker [via Google Fonts], Arial

IMAGES: Seal of the FBI [via Wikipedia], Dean's handprint scar [by greenhorn-art]

MATERIALS: 24lb Xerox Bold Digital paper (8.5"x11"), 80pt binder's board (~2mm), 30/3 size waxed linen thread, embroidery floss (DMC #721), 1.9mm cording, brown cardstock, black Cialux bookcloth, gold foil transfer sheet (came with We R Memory Keepers hot foil pen)

PROGRAMS USED: Fic exported with FicHub, word doc compiled in LibreOffice Writer, Typeset in Affinity Publisher, imposed with Bookbinder-JS, title pages designed in Affinity Designer/Photo

.

I first read these stories on LiveJournal back in 2013, some time after I first encountered Tumblr, Supernatural, and the wider world of online fandom. Once I discovered SPNxCriminal Minds crossovers I devoured so many of them. Something about POV Outsider on the Winchesters, the existing connections with investigating monster vs human-crazy cases, and run-ins with the FBI... it's just works so well.

Of all the SPNxCM fics I read and enjoyed, All The King's Horses is among those that bookmarked themselves in my brain. Since it's been living there all these years, I thought it deserved a place on my bookshelf too.

(Rambling below)

Sourcing the Fic

I used FicHub to download the fics off of Fanfiction.net as HTML. Then I pasted them into LibreOffice Writer and created rich text documents of each fic, so I could Place them into Affinity Publisher.

The stories were crossposted, first on LiveJournal and then Fanfiction. I included the metadata from both sites in the appendices.

(It's fascinating to see the differences in the same work between platforms. FFN requires genres, so if the author doesn't add them on LJ then by default there's more info on FFN. But FFN limits listed characters to 2, so authors have to pick and choose the most important. Then there's the author's amusing disclaimers and spoiler warnings for these fics, which are only included in the LJ version)

Shoutout to the author for how they linked/listed their accounts on other platforms! Thanks to that I was easily able to track down all the tags/metadata for the fics, and find them here to express my appreciation for their stories!

Typesetting

Fonts

EB Garamond is my new favourite body font, 11pt as per my usual.

The title page is entirely Arial: 1) it was the closest match I have to the case file prop I was copying, and 2) if it was a government doc they wouldn't be using anything but the most basic fonts.

Headings and the the bullets bracketing the page numbers are set it Supernatural Knight, a free font in the style of Supernatural's title.

The location segments are in D-DIN, the closest free match to the font Criminal Minds uses (which is probably DIN).

Daniel is used for Dean's 'rushed but legible' note.

Permanent Marker for the 'thick black Sharpie' case file labels.

Artwork

Title pages designed as FBI case files, copied from a prop found online (specifically Etsy's propfictionstudios', but it's all over the web so no idea who actually created it). I had fun plugging in all the fanfic/bookbinding meta!

The ID# above the author's name is the FFN story ID, and the date is the date originally posted on LJ.

The handprint used in the headings of ATKH is Dean's scar. I traced off of a screenshot from s4e01 Lazarus Rising. I chose to use the handprint instead of the anti-possession tattoo or a Devil's Trap as my SPN art element because 1) it's specific to Dean, and 2) indicates/reminds that the story is not set during the season 3 Agent Henriksen/FBI arc.

Grabbed the FBI seal off of Wikipedia.

Construction

Both fics typeset and printed separately, then sewn together into one book. Title page for the sequel was tipped in like an endpaper prior to sewing.

Endbands sewn with orange embroidery floss (DMC 721) around 1.9mm cording. I chose orange because Dean's being in jail brought to mind the orange prison jumpsuits Sam and Dean wore in s1e19 Folsom Prison Blues.

Black bookcloth for the cover, like the Winchesters' beloved black '67 Chevy Impala. (I'd wanted a Supernatural reference to balance out the Criminal Minds-ness of the FBI case files).

I'd originally planned to make lineart of the front of the car, and have it stretch across the bottom of the cover (maybe even wrap around to the back). Even found a useful reference to trace [from here], but it didn't look as good as I'd hoped. Instead I reused the FBI seal and swapped out its text with the titles.

(The effect of shiny foiled FBI symbol on small black book reminds me of one of those FBI badge wallets!)

The foiling process was an unnecessarily long and gruelling affair. My laptop served as a massive power bank for the hot foil pen as I spent 2hrs ever so slowly tracing the image, and then 15mins on the author name and touch-ups. Did it need to take so long? Moving slowly, pushing down hard, going over everything at least three times? I'm sure it didn't. BUT I did not want to chance peeling up the foil to check how I was doing and risk shifting it. It was worth it in my books (haha) ‒ I feel giddy and kick my feet like a schoolgirl whenever I see it!

New Things

Used 24lb paper for the first time, and I love it! It's a little thicker and heavier then regular 20lb printer paper, feels more substantial.

The page numbers & running/section headers are along the outer margin, instead of in the header/footer. This was my way around Affinity's buggy-ness regarding pinning things inline in master pages. (More about that below). If I had been thinking, I could have formatted them like the tabs on a file folder and cut the textblock to match. Oh well, the things you notice once it's printed 😔

This time I also started new chapters/sections using text flow & paragraph spacing settings, instead of using a master. As always, there are pros and cons.

Pro: much faster and less involved. (find chapter start, apply paragraph style VS working from the end cutting text, inserting a frame break, unlinking frames, inserting new pages with master, relinking, pasting, and adding chapter title to a different text box)

Con: images need to be added manually (whether by adding image directly, or by applying a master with the image). I forgot to do this for the second fic, so only ATKH have Dean's handprint scar.

Difficulties Encountered

Affinity Publisher is fighting me on pinning things inline on master pages. They like to disappear on regular pages I've applied the master to. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it only works on some of the pages. Idk what's up. (The bullet character only faces one way so I had use textboxes, flip/mirror one, and pin them inline to the page number).

So instead of having page numbers in the footer, bookended left and right by text boxes with Supernatural Knight's bullet, I put it vertically down the side.

Updated Publisher and all my paragraph styles' fonts changed/went funny. Something to do with the update's variable font support, I think. What was previously 'EB Garamond' regular, was now something along the lines of 'EBGaramond-Regular' which isn't a font. Issue seems to have ironed itself out in my original (near-complete) doc while I was busy remaking it. 😐

On the bright side, the update brought QR code generation to Affinity!

[getvalentined]

FOR THE ASK GAME! i know you've posted a ton of amazing analysis, but i would love more of your vincent thoughts. If you're tired of writing about him right now, i'd also like to hear your thoughts about Glenn, who i don't know if i've heard you talk about a lot. 🖤

💭 How I feel about this character

I will never get tired of talking about Vincent Valentine. He is my favorite character in the whole of fiction, my blorbo of blorbos, and I consider him the single most personally compelling character ever created. I'm not sure I can quantify how much I love this character.

One issue I do run into with regard to how much I adore the guy is assertions and assumptions that it's because he's hot so I wanna fuck him, which is 1000% not the case. I do appreciate his looks—his Rebirth design in particular makes me slightly feral—but it's not from a place of attraction, per se. I personally have no interest in boning Vincent Valentine! I do think he deserves to do some boning, though.

💞 All the people I ship romantically with this character

I ship Vincent with Veld, Cloud, and Genesis, and often Cloud and Genesis at the same time. Also Reeve. Sometimes Tseng, but that's complicated.

I was the first person on the English-speaking side of fandom to draw VinVeld fanart, way back when Before Crisis was still fairly new, and I have RP'd VinVeld with multiple partners since about 2009. Chapter 19 of BC happened, I got fed a loose translation on LiveJournal, and my brain chemistry was changed—another Turk, still alive, who knew Vincent? And they don't refer to each other with any honorifics at all? And he recognized Vincent immediately when even Lucrecia didn't? Those two were basically married, I'm sure of it.

That said, I actually shipped Strifentine before I shipped VinVeld, and I still ship it really hard. My current slice-of-life slow-burn WIP fic is Strifentine, and in Ye Olde Fandom Dayes it was intended to be a core component of my massive Sefikura Bodysharing AU that temporarily broke FFN's review system, although I never got that far.

I've shipped Vinesis since Crisis Core, because Vincent and Genesis are kindred spirits in a way that is similar to Vincent and Cloud while also being completely different, and I love that for them. Two men-turned-monsters-turned-Weapons, doomed to walk the planet until its death, paying for crimes that were never their fault in the first place. Lovely.

While I've never personally posted much if anything related to Valenstrifesodos, I think the dynamic between the three of them would be amazing. Also, as I described to a friend literally yesterday, it's like this: Genesis is Sephiroth's soulmate by fate, Cloud is his soulmate by force, and Vincent is Sephiroth's only living relative so he inherited both of them when the guy died.

Reeve and Tseng are much less commonly shipped with Vincent for me, mostly because I ship them with each other as endgame 100% of the time. In my head, Vincent was kinda with Reeve for a bit postcanon but it just didn't work, and he's honestly pretty attracted to Tseng but doesn't ever pursue it because Tseng kinda hates him. (Tseng does not hate him, it's complicated and entirely Veld's fault, if Tseng ever gets over it they'd have a really fun dynamic.) Sometimes—assuming he doesn't get back with Veld or enter into a relationship Cloud and/or Genesis—I feel like Vincent would occasionally be a third while Reeve and Tseng are together, but it'd be very rare.

🤝 My non-romantic OTP for this character

Also Genesis (in universes where Valenstrifesodos doesn't happen they're generally platonic for a very long time before anything happens between them), as well as Barret and Reeve, but I think my favorite option here is Shera.

They don't really have any canon interactions to speak of, but I spend a lot of time thinking about Cid talking to Vincent in Dirge, telling him that Shera is worried about him and will want to know if he's been eating enough—so they've had interactions, offscreen, between the OG and Dirge. Enough that Shera fusses over him and worries about his diet and sends messages along with Cid to make sure Vincent is doing all right. That's adorable. That's so sweet. I love that for both of them.

🚫 My unpopular opinion about this character

I feel like I have a lot of these, but it really depends on what one considers "unpopular." I guess the biggest is that he isn't in love with Lucrecia anymore? Even though that's...canon. Like that's canon. That is something explored in Dirge, the conclusion of their shared storyline is that Vincent was never actually in love with Lucrecia at all, because he never really knew her, and now that he does he actually appreciates her more, but is able to move forward and leave her behind. (Which is literally what she wants for him! She wants him to be happy without her! This was her goal and she succeeded! But god forbid women do anything!)

The next one is that he would not enter into a relationship with Cid because even if Cid is his type (which he is!) he's in a dedicated relationship with someone else, and Vincent has already done the song and dance of "fool around with a scientist under Shinra's banner* who has a highly intelligent scientist partner who isn't afraid to go to extremes for their work.**" It has nothing to do with interest or a lack of interest, it's because Vincent literally, canonically got killed and turned into a monster for poaching*** and he's never going to even entertain the idea of that ever again.

* Cid is an engineer in Shinra's Department of Space & Aeronautics

** Shera is also an engineer in the same department and was literally cool getting burned alive if it meant the Shinra No. 5 launch would go off safely

*** Lucrecia and Hojo were canonically married and were already in a relationship at the time that Vincent showed up in Nibelheim

The rest include such hot takes as Chaos' consciousness being gone at the end of Dirge (which is also canon), Vincent being Sephiroth's biological father (which is not canon but fuckit), and him being unabashedly pansexual (any character that expresses romantic or sexual interest at any time in any media is bi or pan until proven otherwise) but not having relationships with cis women or anyone who could ever theoretically conceive—he interacted with Nero, immediately knew what happened there, and is not so irresponsible as to risk making any more monster babies capable of flattening the planet when they have a tantrum. (This is actually super rough for him because it's a big part of his sexuality that he just has to cut off forever out of safety concerns and that's pretty fucked up but there's nothing he can do about it.)

🌟 One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

It's funny, because prior to Rebirth's release I said the one thing that would make up for Vincent not being playable would be if he turned into something and attacked the party, but obviously the devs wouldn't do that with a character everyone is supposed to trust—and then they did! I wanted to see them do something with the asymmetry established in Dirge, maybe give him a wonky eye or something like I draw him a lot of the time, but the devs would never do something like that—and then they did! I wanted him to be more fleshed out, like it would be nice to know if he ever had hobbies, but the devs would never waste time on that—and then they did! Rebirth Vincent was made especially for me.

All I really want now are more interactions between him and Cloud moving forward into FF7Re3, and I have a decent amount of faith that it'll happen.

[ for the character breakdown ask game ]